A Better Moving and Storage Co. Inc.

This customer hired our company based on a telephone quote to pick up her items at a storage in Orangevale, CA and ship them to a storage facility in Desoto, KS.The break down of fees for her quote was as follows:$pick up fee$to wrap the items$1.75/lbfor shipping$
delivery feeAS an example we quoted $2,based on a shipment weighing 1,lbs.($p/u, $pack, $1,shipping, $delfee)The total shipment consisted of (7) pallets and weighed 2,lbs.We discounted the price per pound from $to $per lband waivedthe delivery fee of $195.00, a total savings of $738.75Our apologies for the delay in sending the invoice and weight receipt to our customerWe have attached a copy of the weight receipt to this comment.We are also sorry for any comments that came off as short or rude, this was not our intention.We would also like to thank Mrs*for choosing A Better Moving Co., we sincerely appreciate her business

Review: I was overcharged about $2,500 for my move.

I contacted the owner of A Better Moving Co. and asked him for a quote to move my belongings from Citrus Heights, CA to Las Vegas, NV. He told me it would cost about $5,000 but if he freighted my things, it would cost about $3,500. I got an estimate from [redacted] Moving Co. for $2,700 with an estimate of 4,000 pounds. My belongings turned out to weigh 2,500 pounds so [redacted] would have charged me about $1,700 to move me. A Better Moving Company moved me, freighted my things, I did not get my things for EIGHT days and they did not tell me they were going to keep my things for that long, so I had to rent rooms for many nights in hotels in Las Vegas. I paid $5,000 for 2,500 pounds to be moved 700 miles, but the owner of the company told me it would be $3,500. He gave no explanation for the higher charges. There's a lot of damage to my goods due to it being freighted. The "movers" who unloaded the pallets were day labor who had no idea how to move things, they kept asking me for a tip, they asked me to say they worked 10 hours when they only worked 3 hours, one admitted he had just been in jail for 45 days, they had no equipment at all, complained the whole time, left me with huge heavy wrapped things, including my matress for me to deal with. I am 56 and sick with cancer, and I got taken for all that money, was left a huge mess, broken things and had to go without a bed and my belongings for 8 days, which the company told me I would get my things in about 3 days initially. The owner of the company told me the movers here charge for 4 hours so make them work the full time and ask them to put things where I want them. They were day labor, not movers charging $100 an hour, they wanted to do nothing other than ask me for money, for a tip and try to get paid for 10 hours for working 3 hours. I was afraid of them coming back to rob me because they looked in my boxes and made comments about my shoes, purses, that I have expensive purses, so I gave them each a purse for their wives so they would stop asking me for a tip. They bullied and scared me and left me a huge mess. A Better Moving Company does not hire movers to unfreight the stuff, and the truck driver who dropped off the pallets was mad I did not give him a tip after I paid $5,000 for 2,500 pounds of stuff to be moved 700 miles, and it took 8 days. They said because it is Las Vegas, the town runs on tips and I have to give them a tip. I don't want people who just got out of 45 days in jail in my home commenting about my belongings. I am a woman and live alone and it scares me that they know where I live. The owner of this company made it sound like those guys from Labor Ready were movers who were charging big money for 4 hours work, that was not true. The owner of the company never explained to me why his estimate of $3,500 went up to $5,000.

If he had droven a truck out here, not freighted my things, charged me by the hour, double drive time - out here and back and for gasoline, it would have been about $3,000 and I would not have had things damaged and I would have had my things in about two days, not 8 days. It is his responsibility to know the most cost effective way to move things. He did the opposite. He used the most expensive way and the most damaging way and the method that took the longest and charged me $5,000 when a cross-country mover would have charged me less than $2,000. Desired Settlement: I would like a refund in the amount of $2,500 because if you estimate this at what the owner of A Better Moving Company called the more expensive method - a truck and by the hour - it comes out like this. I had so little things, no big furniture at all, so it took his movers 2 hours to take the things out of my apartment - so - 2 hours out, 2 hours in, a 12 hour drive, double the drive, pay for the return drive = 24 hours, plus gasoline = 28 hours at $100 an hour = $2,800 plus $200 in gas. This charge is an outrage. It's the worst I have ever been ripped off in my life.

I paid almost $5,000. With the expensive method it would be about $3,000, so I should get a refund for $2,000 - plus I would like to be reimbursed for the 3 extra nights I had to book hotel rooms, for the broken lamp, broken mirror item and for broken dishes which totals about $500.00. The three extra nights at the Four Queens Hotel cost me $182.00. The lamp was brand new and cost me over $100. The large four sided mirrored item cost about $100 a long time ago and tthe dish set as well.

Business

Response:

Business' Initial Response

Contact Name and Title: [redacted], V.P.

Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX

Contact Email: [redacted]@sbcglobal.net

Case #XXXXXXXX

We are in receipt of the Revdex.com complaint as well as Ms. [redacted]'s letter dating 8/30/13. Since they both address most of the same issues we are responding through the Revdex.com site:

We are very sorry that Ms. [redacted] feels the way she does but we did not hide any of our fees and were as up front as possible:

On 7/30/2013 [redacted] called our office at around 1:30-2:00 pm and spoke with one of our customer service representative's [redacted] (not an owner). She asked if we could move her to Las Vegas, NV immediately, picking her stuff up that day, since the moving company she had hired for the move [redacted] did not show up. We picked up her items by 5 pm that day. Needless to say this was a very last minute booking!!

She described to [redacted] the items she needed moved, 4 items of furniture, pictures and boxes, this is noted on our internal work order, while the actual inventory lists 26 items and boxes.

In a case where we are told only a few items of furniture are involved we quote our rates for freight shipping, which are as follows:

$85.00 pick-up fee and res. delivery fee, $50.00-$75.00 per furniture item for packing, $1.50 per pound to Las Vegas and $195.00 inside delivery fee; quoted rates are noted on the bottom of our internal worksheet. Based on this information she hired us to pick up her items that day and ship them as explained. She never received an estimate, there was no time to go to her home and provide her with one, since this was a same day booking.

It was explained to Ms. [redacted] that yes, we could pick up the items that day but were booked the next day and would not be able to get started on her freight until 8/1. Since there was a lot more packing to do than we knew before we went out to her place, her shipment did not leave our yard until 8/2/2013. Freight companies do not count weekends and her shipment was delivered on 8/7/13 which essentially means it was in transit for 4 days. We are very sorry for any delay in getting the items to Ms. [redacted]. There are no guarantees with van lines either as to when your items will arrive. They might estimate 2 days and it can take 8-10 days. On both estimates provided to us by Ms. [redacted] as comparison, it says in her handwriting 2 days. Nowhere on the document does the moving company state the date of delivery. Also you can not compare a move from Las Vegas to Agoura Hills (300 miles) to a move from Sacramento to Las Vegas (575 miles). It is almost twice the distance and LV to LA is a main thorough fare, where rates will be cheaper.

The comparison, how much less it would have been if we just charged by the hour for loading, travel round trip and unloading is irrelevant, anything over 100 miles is charged by the pound and not by the hour, the estimates from the other companies submitted confirm this fact.

There was damage to her mirror cabinet, which happened in our yard before the shipment went out and we told Ms. [redacted] about it and that we would take care of it.

We were appalled to hear about the lack of professionalism of the laborers in Las Vegas. We were assured by [redacted] that these men would be experienced movers and workers of good caliber. We sincerely apologize for any unprofessional behavior on their part.

We are very sorry for Ms. [redacted]'s dissatisfaction. . Here is what we would like to offer as compensation:

$100.00 damaged mirror cabinet

$100.00 damaged lamp

$195.00 inside laborers refund

$125.00 two nights of hotel expense

$520.00 total refund

Consumer's Final Response

(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)

I am accepting the offer to resolve the problem to put an end to the situation, but, in reality, I should have gotten back a lot more than $750.00. I just moved and had almost twice the weight I had moved by A Better Moving Company, I purchased extra insurance through the moving company, and the total bill was $2,400. The movers had to set up a new bed frame from scratch, new dinning table from scratch and they also helped me take a lot of the wrapping off of the pictures and some of the furniture that A Better Moving Company has on my belongings. The day laborers that A Better Moving Company sent me left all the pods on everything, and I would have to hire a couple of strong young men with box cutters in order to open the pods that A Better Moving Company put my big pieces of furniture in. I opened one table yesterday and found out A Better Moving Company took it apart and wrapped it in 4 pieces. Had they told me they were going to dis-assemble my furniture and wrap it in 6 wraps in pods with tape on every layer, I would never have let them do that to me. I can take pictures to show I can't open those big pods. They are still wrapped. I did not say anything bad or untrue about this company. They lied to you, the Revdex.com, saying my other movers cancelled. They lied, I pointed out what they they lied about. There is nothing bad nor mean about telling the truth. I am going to have to hire somebody to open up those huge pods A Better Moving Company made and haul them away. It's so much work and stress, no one has ever heard of anything like this. The people they sent me from [redacted] didn't open one thing, not even my matrress. They walked out after working about 2 hours after asking me to lie and pay them for 10 hours and A Better Moving Company knew they hired day laborers, not movers. They know that. I am still paying at least a thousand dollars too much, including the refund, for the moving services A Better Moving Company provided me with. I would like to have the amount credited back to my debit card, and if they can't do so, then my new address is: [redacted] Apt. [redacted] CA XXXXX.

Business' Final Response

We are sorry to hear that Ms. [redacted] is not accepting our apologies and/or offer. We strive to be fair in any kind of settlement with a disgruntled customer.

To reiterate some of the facts:

1) Ms. [redacted] never requested an estimator to come out in order for us to give her a written estimate as she did with the other moving companies, which we would have gladly done had she asked us to when she called a week prior to her move (we do not keep record of incoming calls for rate inquiries, so this is based on her statement)

2) We quoted Ms. [redacted] our rates for freight shipping and our minimums. Quoting rates via telephone does NOT constitute an estimate.

3) Ms. [redacted] did not call back to book the move with us until the day of (7/30/13); she mentioned to [redacted] that her movers did not show up that day, we cannot verify this fact but certainly do not have anything to gain by lying about it. Whatever the reason, she called us at 1:00 pm to hire us and we picked up her items by 5:00 pm

4)per mapquest the mileage is as follows:

Sacramento to Las Vegas 575 miles

Las Vegas to Agoura Hills 299 miles

5) in our previous rebuttle we also offered to pay for 2 nights of Ms. [redacted]'s hotel stay,

We do not try to take advantage of any customer, healthy or unhealthy, rich or poor and always try to make our customers happy. Our 30 years in business and the many good reviews we have attest to this fact.

We feel strongly that we did not disguise/mislead Ms. [redacted] when quoting her rates for the cost of shipping her items prior to her hiring us; a contributing factor was that she had more items than described over the telephone (this is a very common occurence in moving) and therefore the total weight was higher than anticipated and at $1.50/lb, as quoted, this resulted in a higher shipping cost.The only way to have estimated the total weight would have been by visual inspection prior to her move date.

We resent the defamatory attack by this customer calling us liers and criminals, when all we did was accommodate her same day request and charged her the rates we quoted her.

We sincerely apologize for the delay in getting the items to her in a timely fashion (which was out of our control), for the damaged items and the unprofessionalism of the [redacted] employees in Las Vegas and are eager to compensate her for these justified complaints.

To settle this dispute we are willing to meet Ms. [redacted] half way, she is asking for $1,500.00 and we are offering her a refund of $750.00. We hope that this is agreeable and await your reply.

Business Response

Contact Name and Title: Sigrid Mattingly, V.P.

Contact Phone: 916-489-3322

Contact Email: [email protected]

On 9/20 we received an e-mail message and telephone call from the Revdex.com that this case is closed and the customer agreed to a $750.00 refund. We issued a refund to Joan Woodward's credit card that day and added an additional $100.00 for incidentals to go above and beyond the agreed settlement and satisfy this customer. We stand by this settlement.

Consumer Response

(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)

A Better Moving Company reimbursed me for the things they broke - the one mirrored pedestal, the one set of dishes and the broken lamp. They reimbursed me for the three extra nights I had to stay in a hotel. They gave me $100 towards hiring people to help me open the pods they created and freighted my things in.

That's great, but now I am opening the pictures and find out that they put masking tape not only on the one cabinet they ruied by putting masking tape on it, they put masking tape all over the front of my pictures and two antique mirrors.

I have the Salvation Army coming out today to take away the cream colored cabinet they destroyed by putting masking tape on the plexiglass parts of the cabinet. I will keep the receipt from the Salvation Army. I looked in the website where I purchased the three prints that are framed and that have covering over them that has masking tape all over them, and each of those three prints with frames and covers cost about $175 each plus tax and shipping. I also looked into antique mirrors and found two mirrors very similar in size, shape and frames to the two I have. My grandfather gave me those two mirrors, they are over 60 years old. To replace the one would cost about $760 and the other one would cost about $350 to replace. I am taking pictures of the damage to these things from the masking tape and plan on filing a claim in small claims court. I was not aware of all of the damages until now because I couldn't open the pods, the guys from Labor Ready didn't open the pods and I moved again, so until now I didn't know A Better Moving Company put masking tape on one display cabinet and on my pictures, etc.

Review: I recently use a Better Moving and Storage in Carmichael, California for a long distance move, I was very dissatisfied. The manager [redacted] was dishonest. He quoted me a price of $2,600.00 if the weight didn’t exceed 1,000 pounds for my furniture. After two guys moved my things out of my 10X10 storage in Orangevale, CA and took it back to their wherehouse. Steve then said it weighed over 1,000 pounds which was really hard to believe. My furniture wasn’t that much. I had lived in a one bedroom apt. he quoted me a price of $3.957.50 for move.

[redacted]Desired Settlement: I asked him twice for a copy of the weight scale ticket and he said he’d send me one and never did. I asked him twice for a copy of the receipt for this move. He never sent me a receipt. He was reud to me on the phone.

Business

Response:

This customer hired our company based on a telephone quote to pick up her items at a storage in Orangevale, CA and ship them to a storage facility in Desoto, KS.The break down of fees for her quote was as follows:$195.00 pick up fee$500.00 to wrap the items$1.75/lb. for shipping$195.00 delivery feeAS an example we quoted $2,600.00 based on a shipment weighing 1,000 lbs.($195.00 p/u, $500.00 pack, $1,750.00 shipping, $195.00 del. fee)The total shipment consisted of (7) pallets and weighed 2,175 lbs.We discounted the price per pound from $1.75 to $1.50 per lb. and waivedthe delivery fee of $195.00, a total savings of $738.75Our apologies for the delay in sending the invoice and weight receipt to our customer. We have attached a copy of the weight receipt to this comment.We are also sorry for any comments that came off as short or rude, this was not our intention.We would also like to thank Mrs. *. for choosing A Better Moving Co., we sincerely appreciate her business.

I was overcharged about $2,500 for my move.

I contacted the owner of A Better Moving Co. and asked him for a quote to move my belongings from Citrus Heights, CA to Las Vegas, NV. He told me it would cost about $5,000 but if he freighted my things, it would cost about $3,500. I got an estimate from [redacted] Moving Co. for $2,700 with an estimate of 4,000 pounds. My belongings turned out to weigh 2,500 pounds so [redacted] would have charged me about $1,700 to move me. A Better Moving Company moved me, freighted my things, I did not get my things for EIGHT days and they did not tell me they were going to keep my things for that long, so I had to rent rooms for many nights in hotels in Las Vegas. I paid $5,000 for 2,500 pounds to be moved 700 miles, but the owner of the company told me it would be $3,500. He gave no explanation for the higher charges. There's a lot of damage to my goods due to it being freighted. The "movers" who unloaded the pallets were day labor who had no idea how to move things, they kept asking me for a tip, they asked me to say they worked 10 hours when they only worked 3 hours, one admitted he had just been in jail for 45 days, they had no equipment at all, complained the whole time, left me with huge heavy wrapped things, including my matress for me to deal with. I am 56 and sick with cancer, and I got taken for all that money, was left a huge mess, broken things and had to go without a bed and my belongings for 8 days, which the company told me I would get my things in about 3 days initially. The owner of the company told me the movers here charge for 4 hours so make them work the full time and ask them to put things where I want them. They were day labor, not movers charging $100 an hour, they wanted to do nothing other than ask me for money, for a tip and try to get paid for 10 hours for working 3 hours. I was afraid of them coming back to rob me because they looked in my boxes and made comments about my shoes, purses, that I have expensive purses, so I gave them each a purse for their wives so they would stop asking me for a tip. They bullied and scared me and left me a huge mess. A Better Moving Company does not hire movers to unfreight the stuff, and the truck driver who dropped off the pallets was mad I did not give him a tip after I paid $5,000 for 2,500 pounds of stuff to be moved 700 miles, and it took 8 days. They said because it is Las Vegas, the town runs on tips and I have to give them a tip. I don't want people who just got out of 45 days in jail in my home commenting about my belongings. I am a woman and live alone and it scares me that they know where I live. The owner of this company made it sound like those guys from Labor Ready were movers who were charging big money for 4 hours work, that was not true. The owner of the company never explained to me why his estimate of $3,500 went up to $5,000.

If he had droven a truck out here, not freighted my things, charged me by the hour, double drive time - out here and back and for gasoline, it would have been about $3,000 and I would not have had things damaged and I would have had my things in about two days, not 8 days. It is his responsibility to know the most cost effective way to move things. He did the opposite. He used the most expensive way and the most damaging way and the method that took the longest and charged me $5,000 when a cross-country mover would have charged me less than $2,000.